All About Pakistan-Nargis Sarfraz’s Blog

The primary economic activity in the country of Pakistan is agriculture. So it is only natural that a large number of crops are grown over here. Maximum percentage of the people in Pakistan is dependent on the occupation of Farming which is evident from the statistics which are available. Agriculture, coupled with small-scale forestry and fishing contributes almost 1/4th of the total GDP. Moreover, it provides employment to a huge number of people. Almost 48% of the total labour force in Pakistan is employed in this sector. There are huge tracts of land in Pakistan which are devoted to growing agricultural crops. Although, agriculture crops are grown in all parts of the country, the primary areas are the Indus River plains in the areas of Sindh and Punjab. There has been considerable development and advancement in the methods of growing agricultural crops over the past few decades but a lot remains to be done, especially in accordance with the growing concerns of global warming which is threatening to pose big problems to the nation. The agricultural think-tank needs to develop new methods of growing crops with the minimal use of water because of the apparent lack of the same. Further, additives and fertilizers which can maximize the output need to be developed.With the increasingly worse yields of agricultural crops that the farmers of Pakistan are getting each successive year, it is high time that they employed the use of agricultural fertilizers for the betterment of crops. There are a lot of factors which can be thwarted to increase the yields by the help of the same. The advantages of using agricultural fertilizers for the growing of crops seem to be manifold. First and foremost, the use of agricultural fertilizers is very important for improving the overall productivity of the land. Farmers in Pakistan are increasingly getting aware of the various nutrients that are present in fertilizers which help the soil in producing a better yield. Furthermore, the dire lack of water for irrigation would be neutralized by the use of fertilizers which would help in the artificial semi nation of nutrients into the plant in a dissolved form. The use of fertilizers has grown at a fast pace over the past few decades though the first use of the same was done in the year 1950. Proper knowledge of the same seems to have done a world of good to the farmers.

Like in most of the Asian countries, agricultural rice is one of the most important crops in Pakistan for the reason that it forms part of the staple diet of most of the people. Besides this, rice is also important for Pakistan for being one of the export items earning more reserves. According to recent reports, agricultural rice accounts for $42 million of the export income annually. Nevertheless, one of the problems which haunt the production of agricultural rice in Pakistan is the salinity, which is contaminating. As a result, almost 2.7 million hectares of land devoted to rice cultivation goes to waste every year. There have been efforts by rice breeders to counter this problem, but the magnitude of this concern deserves even more consistent and severe action. Pakistan has decided to go ahead with a project to reduce the salinity of the cultivated land in order to increase the agricultural rice production. This would greatly help in increasing the total yield and, thus, ultimately contribute to escalating the export ranks. Apart from this, the increased yield could also serve in case of natural calamities, when the nation would require high reserves of rice for its own.

In a bid to improve the variety and yield of the agricultural corn produced in the country, the Pakistan government has given the go-ahead for the agricultural think-tank to introduce new corn varieties. Apart from the obvious effects of increased yield, there are many advantages of using this new variety of agricultural corn. For instance, it helps in the immense production of food grade lactic acid. Pakistan has been for the utilization of various novel and innovative methods for increasing the yield of its crops ever since the weather conditions have taken a turn for the worse. It realizes the dire need for increasing the yield of staple and regular crops like rice, wheat, agricultural corn, etc. Apart from the utilization of new methods of farming and cultivation, Pakistan has also employed the use of a whole new variety of seeds which are pre-treated to give an increased yield of products. Also, the Pakistan government has advocated the wide-spread use of fertilizers and additives which would heighten the yield without spoiling the output. A huge amount of monetary inputs are being made in this field for further research and development.

Pakistan has a total area of approximately 803,940 square kilometers out of which only 40% is deemed suitable for agriculture crop growth. The rest of the 48 million hectares that have been classified as unsuitable are a collection of mostly deserts, mountain slopes and urban settlements, like cities and towns. This is a matter of concern for Pakistan because the occupation of growing agriculture crops is the primary interest of Pakistanis. As a result, most of the Pakistani authorities include the mountain slopes along with the urban settlements in their division of useable land on the premise that they might be used for cattle grazing.

But things are definitely looking better for Pakistan. There has been a growth of 50% in the amount of agriculture crop area in the period of time after independence. A primary reason for this is the recent availability of agricultural irrigation. This has helped in making a larger field space fit for farming. Quite a substantial amount of land has been lost to urbanization but the incorporation of new land due to better modes of irrigation has definitely made up for it.

The population of Pakistan is roughly 165 million which is contained in an area which is slightly smaller than twice the size of the state of California. Being a grain producing country, the plains have high density of population. There are a host of countries which border its boundaries. India, China, Afghanistan and the like are included in this list. As with most of the Asian nations, agriculture is the primary source of income out here. Pakistan’s agricultural economics emphasizes that the single biggest sector of GDP is agriculture. Almost half of the total labor force in the entire of Pakistan is employed with the agriculture sector and draws almost 22% of its GDP from the same.

The rural areas of Pakistan account for approximately 67% of the entire population and are dependent on the agricultural sector for their livelihood. Urbanization is on a rise. This dependence may be in a direct or indirect form. Agricultural economics is heavily determined by Pakistan’s methods of farming as these products are the main source of foreign exchange earnings for itself. There has been a decline in the size of the farm that landowners have owned till date. In the 1970s the average size of the land used to be 13 acres while this has dwindled down to 7.7 acres in the present day.

The primary occupation and source of GDP for Pakistan is agriculture. There is a total land of 79.6 million hectares out of which, approximate 22 million hectares are devoted to the purpose of farming. Beyond that, only 18 million hectares are irrigated which give rise to the problem of proper yields. As a result, the Pakistani authorities are always in the process of finding out novel methods of producing agriculture fertilizers. The uses of farm inputs, until now, are highly insufficient. Low yields are obtained.

Fertilizers are very important for improving the productivity of a land. There are essential nutrients which can be extracted by the use of the same. The widespread use of agriculture fertilizers in Pakistan is slowly gaining momentum as people have realized the advantages of doing farming in an intelligent manner. Fertilizers were first introduced in Pakistan in 1950. The use of the agriculture fertilizers has gone up very fast as is evident from the fact that the use was 5kg/ ha in 1966-67 while in 2003-04 it went up to 133kg/ha. But this needs to be further improved because the use per hectare is still very low as compared to other nations.